1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a baby bottle containing a music player that is operated by omnidirectional tilting of the bottle from vertical alignment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Baby bottles have been in continuous use for many, many years for nursing and feeding liquids to infant children. Conventional baby bottles are formed as elongated, tubular containers of glass or plastic having a closed bottom end and an open mouth at the opposite, top end. Rubber nipples are releaseably secured to the open, top ends of conventional bottles by means of annular plastic collars which provide a liquid-tight seal at the mouth of the bottle. Conventional infant feeding bottles of this type may be cylindrical in cross-sectional shape, but are sometimes formed with a polygonal outer cross-sectional configuration.
Infant children are often quite temperamental during feeding. The distress of many infants during feeding may be relieved by playing soothing music to the infant. In many cases music relaxes and calms the child so that the infant is able to take nourishment by sucking liquid from the bottle through the nipple without agitation.
The soothing and calming effect of music has been used to advantage in a wide variety of children's products. Stuffed animals, mobiles, and dolls have all been manufactured with internal music boxes designed to capture and hold the attention of infant children and newborn babies.
Various liquid containers for feeding infants have been devised that contain music players for providing soothing music to calm a distressed infant. Prior systems of this type are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,678,093; 4,898,060; 4,944,704; and 5,664,745. Most of these prior art devices are dependent upon manual operation to close an electrical connection to a music player to turn the music player on or off. Some of these prior art devices are actuated by a switch that closes when the infant feeding bottle is lifted from a supporting surface.
Only one of the use prior art devices, specifically that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,093, involves an electrical switching system that is actuated by tilting of the bottle. However, this system employs a plurality of mercury switches. While the switches are alternatively closed by tilting the bottle in certain directions, this system does not provide for omnidirectional operation. Furthermore, this system carries with it the risk of exposure to mercury, which represents a serious hazzard to the health of the infant and others.